How to Get a New York Real Estate License

NYSDOS is basically the go to branch of government for real estate licensing. Even once you earn your license, you will have to become familiar with the department.

They are in charge of setting continuing education hours, issuing licenses, and overseeing disciplinary matters.

NYSDOS also looks into real estate schools and their curriculum across the state to ensure that the learning material is up to date and covers legal matters that are relevant in New York.

Fun fact: New York is a real estate hub, so the governing board has their hands full. There are approximately 30,000 licensed real estate agents in Manhattan alone, and over 50,000 agents in the wider NYC metro area.

There are no educational requirements for taking the real estate licensing exam other than the 75-hour real estate pre-licensing course. You won’t even need a college degree to become a real estate agent in NY.

Yes, you can take the course online, but courses need to be approved by the NYS State Department and ARELLO. Both the NYS State Department and ARELLO have approved all of the courses reviewed by agents on this page.

The exam is paper-based, with 75 multiple-choice questions split into two sections: the national real estate portion and state-specific portion. All questions are from the 75-hour pre-licensing course curriculum. 

You will have 1.5 hours to complete the exam.

You can take the exam in 5 languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Russian and Chinese. If you prefer taking the exam in a language other than English, you can notify an exam proctor when reporting to the test center

A New York real estate license is valid for a period of 2 years. The exact expiration date is written on every license, so you will know when it’s time to renew it. 

You can renew your license 3 months before its expiration date by applying online. Licenses are renewed online, as part of New York’s Green Initiative to reduce paper use.

To renew your license, you must follow the continuing education requirements (more below).

The 75-hour pre-licensing course is valid for 8 years, which is very generous compared to other states. You need to pass the licensing exam during those 8 years – if you don’t, you would need to retake the whole 75-hour course. 

Once you’ve passed, you have up to two years to submit an application.

To pass the final real estate licensing exam, you need a score of at least 70%. However, the exact score won’t be reported to you, just a pass or fail.

Around 59% of students pass the real estate licensing exam.

Every license has to be renewed within two years from the expiration date that is printed on it. You can renew your license 3 months before it expires, but only after completing 22.5 hours of education. Of those 22.5 hours: 

• Three hours must be from the area of Fair Housing and/or Discrimination
• One-hour has to be from the law of agency (except in the initial licensing term, you have to complete two hours of agency-related material)

To be eligible for a renewal, you still need to be under the supervision of a sponsoring broker. 

Even if you don’t have a sponsoring broker, you can take the licensing exam. However, you need to have one when applying for your real estate salesperson license. 

• A government-issued identification document. Any of the following documents are accepted: 
  • personal ID
  • driver’s license
  • NYC Identification Card
  • Military ID
  • United States Passport
  • Employment Authorization Card
  • United States INS issued ID
  • Certificate of US citizenship
  • Foreign Passport
  • A Brazilian, Mexican, Honduran, or Ecuadorian Consular ID. 
• Your “Summary of Your Submission” you received when scheduling your exam. It contains your exam information and your candidate number. 
• A calculator that doesn’t have an alphabetic keyboard

Finding a sponsoring broker is similar to applying for a job. You find the company you want to work for, in this case, the broker and apply to work for them and be under their supervision. AgentAdvice.com lists many of the national brokers who are willing to take new agents under their wing and teach them about real estate and trading. 

The biggest difference between finding a sponsoring broker and applying for a job? You represent your own business as a 1099 contractor, rather than joining a company as a W-2 employee.

If you fail the exam, you need to re-apply on eAccessNY. You can retake the exam three times in 12 months, but if you fail all three attempts, you need to go through 30 hours of additional education.

After you pass the final exam, you need to submit a real estate license application. Along with this application, you are required to provide the following supporting documentation: 

• Certification of Satisfactory Completion (generally this is completed by the school coordinator)
• Examination notification 
• License fee
• Name of your New York State licensed real estate broker

Note that a passing score is valid only for a period of 2 years, so you need to submit a licensing application in that period of time, otherwise, you would have to retake and pass the exam once again to be able to get a license. 

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to get an initial salesperson license online: 

• After you log into your eAccessNY account, click on “Apply for Initial Salesperson License (qualifying by Exam only)” from the Main Menu.
• Press “Next Step’ to continue.
• Enter the required details and press “Next Step”
• Enter your sponsoring broker’s license number (UID#) 
• Find the broker license that matches the company’s name and address and press “Next Step” 
• Enter the information that is required and press “Next Step” to continue.
• Enter the name of the school along with the completion date of the pre-licensing course and press “Next Step” 
• Check the “I Agree” box, then”Next Step” to continue.
• Enter your payment information and press “submit”.
• Print the “Summary of Your Submission” page that will be generated

Your sponsoring broker must log to their account to authorize your application. Once this is done, the Department of State will review your application to ensure it completes all requirements for a real estate salesperson license. After the Department o State approves your license, the will mail it to your business address.

The official government website for signing up, scheduling, and receiving the results of the real estate licensing exam in New York is called “Occupational Licensing Management System”, better known as eAccessNY. You can find it on the official New York government website. 

Once you’ve signed up to the official website, you need to find an eligible location where you will take the exam itself. New York state has proctoring locations in the following locations:

• Albany
• Allegany
• Brooklyn
• Buffalo
• Cattaragaugus
• Delmar
• Dutchess
• Fulton
• Herkimer
• Lewis
• Liverpool
• Madison
• Manhattan
• Marathon
• Nassau
• Orange County
• Oswego
• Queens
• Rochester
• Saratoga
• Schoharie
• Steuben
• Suffolk
• Sullivan County
• Syracuse
• Watertown
• Westchester

It depends – do you have an active license in one of these states?

• Arkansas
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Georgia
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania
• West Virginia

Exact processes differ by state – so be sure to contact the Department of Licensing Services for more information if you have an active license in one of the above states.

There are many websites and sources online where you can get information about the requirements, the process and the licensing exam itself, but the most reliable source of information comes from the New York official government website.